The present invention relates broadly to underground enclosures for industrial equipment and in particular to underground sewage lift stations and/or water booster stations.
In some sewage or water systems pumping stations are provided at various locations throughout the system to establish sewage or water flow from one location to another. Such pumping or lift stations are particularly necessary when the fluid being transported must be pumped up hill or on an upgrade due to the topography of the land. Typically, such pumping stations are buried in the ground as are the sewage or water lines themselves. Prior art pumping stations are underground enclosures in which sewage or water pumps are installed. Depending on the pumping capacity required, one or more such pumps may be used at each station and the size of the station will vary accordingly. The underground enclosure houses, in addition to the pumps themselves, other supporting equipment for the pumps such as pump electrical control switch boxes, etc. The stations, or enclosures, may be buried at varying depths in the earth depending upon the requirements of a particular system. The walls of the underground enclosure must be able to withstand the pressure of the surrounding earth. The prior art underground lift stations are typically elongated enclosures with planar side walls. To provide adequate side wall strength the prior art enclosures included a plurality of I-beams affixed to the side walls. Crossed I-beams are also affixed to the outer surface of the roof and floor of the prior art enclosures.
The present invention provides an enclosure with side walls having substantially the same if not greater strength than the prior art enclosures but which reduces the number of required I-beam supports on the side walls significantly reducing the weight of the enclosure. Additionally, the enclosure of the present invention that has the same exterior dimension as a prior art enclosure will, on the other hand, have significantly more usable interior space than the similar sized prior art enclosure. The present invention thus is an enclosure having significant advantages over the prior art.